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Intel Is Still Working On G45 VA-API Video Acceleration

02-24-2011, 05:50 PM

Phoronix: Intel Is Still Working On G45 VA-API Video Acceleration

While there is Intel VA-API video acceleration support under Linux for Clarkdale/Arrandale hardware and the newest Sandy Bridge CPUs (assuming you are running the very latest code), there is no video playback acceleration support for the Intel G45 / GMA 4500M HD hardware. It was previously promised by Intel engineers with a target delivery date of Q2'2010, but that has long since passed without any further information from Intel...

Comment

Also for that matter intel does not *officially* support linux as well. Their driver is provided "as is".

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Comment

As has been mentioned before ad nauseam, the issue with UVD is exposing the programming information without putting our DRM (Digital Rights Management) implementation at risk on other OSes. At the hardware level the decode and DRM are somewhat intertwined with UVD. Intel's decoder may be less intertwined with DRM, or maybe it is and they are still trying to work out how to enable it while still protecting their DRM implementation on other OSes.

Shaders can be used as an alternate means to decode video. They are more flexible than a fixed function block like UVD, but can't be used for certain aspects of the decode pipeline that are not easily done in parallel. They can be used to add decode support for newer video formats (like vp8) that can't be added to fixed function blocks.